Background
Studies of pediatric conduct disorder (CD) have described frontal and temporal lobe
structural abnormalities that parallel findings in antisocial adults. The purpose
of this study was to examine previously unexplored cortical thickness and folding
as markers for brain abnormalities in “pure CD”–diagnosed adolescents. On the basis
of current frontotemporal theories, we hypothesized that CD youth would have thinner
cortex or less cortical folding in temporal and frontal lobes than control subjects.
Methods
We obtained T1-weighted brain structure images from 24 control and 19 CD participants
aged 12 to 18 years, matched by gender and age. We measured group differences in cortical
thickness and local gyrification index (regional cortical folding measure) using surface-based
morphometry with clusterwise correction for multiple comparisons.
Results
The CD participants, compared with control subjects, showed both reduced cortical
thickness and folding. Thinner cortex was located primarily in posterior brain regions,
including left superior temporal and parietal lobes, temporoparietal junction and
paracentral lobule, right superior temporal and parietal lobes, temporoparietal junction,
and precuneus. Folding deficits were located mainly in anterior brain regions and
included left insula, ventro- and dorsomedial prefrontal, anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal
cortices, temporal lobe, right superior frontal and parietal lobes, and paracentral
lobule.
Conclusions
Our findings generally agree with previous CD volumetric studies but here show the
unique contributions of cortical thickness and folding to gray matter reductions in
pure CD in different brain regions.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 03, 2012
Accepted:
November 20,
2011
Received in revised form:
November 17,
2011
Received:
April 8,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
